AAF/Brightline Update - Feb 2016

[spuwho]

The following are recent updates on the progress of the new AAF/Brightline rail service coming to Florida.

Per Trains:

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2016/02/19-siemens

Siemens places first Cummins engine inside a Charger locomotive

https://www.youtube.com/v/0dFKSVf9JAI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Siemens celebrated a production milestone in Sacramento rail manufacturing plant recently by installing the first Cummins QSK95 engine with alternator that will power the new diesel-electric Charger locomotives. The 42,000-pound power unit, the first engine to be installed at Siemens Sacramento manufacturing plant, was successfully lowered into the locomotive by overhead crane.

Siemens is manufacturing a total of 69 diesel-electric locomotives for the Departments of Transportation in Illinois, California, Michigan, Missouri, Washington and Maryland. The diesel-electric locomotives are also being manufacturing for Brightline, the express passenger rail service that will connect the major cities of Miami and Orlando. The diesel locomotives will be powered by the 16-cylinder, 95-liter displacement, and 4,400 horsepower rated diesel engines built by Cummins. The new state-of-the-art locomotives are designed to operate at speeds up to 125 miles per hour and, with the Cummins engine, will comply with the Federal Railroad Administration's stipulated Tier IV emission standards.

The Cummins QSK95 engine, manufactured in the U.S. at its Seymour, Ind., plant, is engineered with modern technologies and design features that ensure the high performance, low fuel consumption, clean emissions, and low total cost of ownership.

The diesel-electric locomotives are currently being built at Siemens rail manufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif. The plant employs more than 800 people, has been in operation for over 30 years and sources up to 80 percent of its energy from two megawatts of solar energy. The plant recently completed a 125,000 square-foot expansion to help accommodate its growing production needs.

Per the Orlando Biz Journal:

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2016/01/7-things-happening-with-all-aboard-florida-in.html

7 things happening with All Aboard Florida in Orlando

All Aboard Florida this week got the official thumbs-up from the city of Orlando on several agreements, laying the groundwork for the passenger rail system's final destination.

Coral Gables-based All Aboard Florida finalized several lease and usage agreements with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority late last year, and on Jan. 25, got the sign-off from the city to allow the firm to use land at Orlando International Airport to complete the $3.1 billion intercity train system.

Construction is under way on the airport's $215 million Intermodal Transportation Facility, where the Brightline Orlando station will be. Construction manager Turner-Kiewit Joint Venture will build the infrastructure for the Brightline station, including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, fire alarm, communications/IT and the rail platform. Check out the remaining packages available to subcontractors from Turner-Kiewit Joint Venture.

All Aboard earlier this month made its first of an unknown number of installments of $8 million to the aviation authority toward the construction of its station at the intermodal facility.

The land lease was finalized for All Aboard to use about 80 acres of airport property to build a vehicle maintenance facility. The agreement includes an option for All Aboard to increase its footprint in the future.

All Aboard in August got the construction go-ahead from the Federal Railroad Administration on its plans to build 35 miles of new tracks alongside State Road 528 from its sister company's existing freight rail corridor in Cocoa into the Orlando airport. The administration on Aug. 4 issued what's known as the final environmental impact statement, which was required because All Aboard applied for a loan through the federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing Program.

All Aboard earlier this month got a one-year extension to try to sell $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds, a move expected to help the company finalize long-term financing, as reported by sister paper South Florida Business Journal.

Per TCPalm:

Some Realtors to begin warning buyers about All Aboard Florida

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/shaping-our-future/all-aboard-florida/some-realtors-to-begin-warning-buyers-about-all-aboard-florida-2b86a03a-a55f-6dd4-e053-0100007f298e-369347761.html

Per South Florida Real Estate News:

http://therealdeal.com/miami/2016/02/21/martin-county-budgets-more-to-fight-rail-service/#sthash.dyBZt5HN.dpuf

Martin County budgets more to fight rail service

County commissioners allocate an extra $850,000 to fight All Aboard Florida

[mbwright]

If it wasn't for rail, some of these town would not have been built in the early days.  If you don't like trains, simply don't buy a house near the tracks.  It's pretty simple.  Sort of like don't buy a house near an airport, or military base.  If you have property near tracks, there was never an agreement that only x trains would pass per day, on the deed.

[spuwho]

Fortunately, these are already active tracks.

I cant imagine the hassle involved if it had been rail banked.

CSX sold some ROW in Pennsylvania that had not been used in 18 years. A suburban development popped up next to the ROW and the homeowners had never, ever seen a train on it.

The new rail owner wanted to haul garbage from a transload facility to an incinerator on the other side of town, that was the ROW they were going to use.

When the short line operator came through, trimmed the trees, sprayed for weeds and replaced the ballast, the HOA went ballistic over the fact trains were going to pass nearby.

The operator recommended they put up a fence to keep the kids out and noise limited. The HOA refused as they were told the railroad had been abandoned and not used anymore and they would take them to court.

It was technically never abandoned and the HOA would have lost in court, but the short line cut a deal with CSX for trackage rights and re-route the trains 3 miles farther away.

The operator then abandoned the line, took up the rail and donated it to the city as a trail.

They didnt have to do that, but they did because the operator lives in the same town as the people complaining and decided to take a different route.

Fortunately, the economics of that operator allowed them to adjust in favor of the neighbors, but technically, a railroad doesnt have to do it. They could have put up their own fence and told them to buzz off the private property.

With so much ROW going into deep freeze these days, you wi hear more of these NIMBY stories as time goes by.

There is a ton of banked rail in Indiana and Illinois that you cant even see anymore because it buried under dirt and grass. But by law it is still a railroad with all of the rights that come with it.

[Kerry]

The irony is going to be dripping when the train is up and running and these towns are begging for a stop.

[Ocklawaha]

The Orlando Station is a massive construction site as we write, it's already possible to see where the line is going and the station itself rising.

[spuwho]

Some recent video updates from Brightline. (AAF)

https://www.youtube.com/v/souHpADVQv0

And in a joint development between Brightline, Siemens & Bode, an automated gap ramp that extends to the various station stops

https://www.youtube.com/v/k17PfoaGibY